October 20,
2014 — The Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family culminated on Oct. 19
when Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI, who led the church from 1963 to 1978,
during the closing Mass. Pope Francis
praised the late pope as the “great helmsman” of the Second Vatican Council and
founder of the synod, as well as a “humble and prophetic witness of love for
Christ and his church.”

The pope
spoke during a homily in St. Peter's Square at a Mass for more than 30,000
people. “When we look to this great pope, this courageous Christian, this
tireless apostle, we cannot but say in the sight of God a word as simple as it
is heartfelt and important: thanks,” the pope said, drawing applause from the
congregation, which included retired Pope Benedict, whom Blessed Paul made a
cardinal in 1977.

Pope Francis
signed a decree in May 2014 recognizing a miracle of a child born in California
in the 1990s, attributed to the intercession of Pope Paul. Both the lives of
the mother and baby were at risk, and doctors advised terminating the
pregnancy. Instead the mother sought the intercession of Pope Paul, and the
baby was born healthy.

Pope Paul's
connection with the themes raised at the bishops’ synod on the family include
the 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” for which he is most known and that
focuses on Catholic teaching on the beauty and purpose of marriage, married
love and procreation. Looking back on the two-week family synod
during the Mass, Pope Francis called it a “great experience,” whose members had
“felt the power of the Holy Spirit who constantly guides and renews the church.”

The synod included a number of Jesuit
attendees: Father General Adolfo
Nicolás; Father Federico
Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office; Monsignor Ján Babiak, Archbishop of Prešov, Slovakia, for
Catholics of Byzantine rite; Father
François-Xavier Dumortier, Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University
in Rome; Father Antonio Spadaro, Editor
of La Civiltà Cattolica; Father
George Henri Ruyssen, of the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome; and Father Bernd Hagenkord of Vatican
Radio.

Born
Giovanni Battista Montini in 1897 in the northern Italian province of Brescia, Pope
Paul VI was ordained to the priesthood in 1920 and named archbishop of Milan in
1954. Elected pope in 1963, he reconvened the Second Vatican Council when his
predecessor St. John XXIII died, presided over its final three sessions and
oversaw the promulgation of all of the council's documents. He also led the
process of implementing the council's reforms.

Pope Paul VI
was the first pope in the modern area to travel widely, including visits to
Jordan, Israel, India, the United
States, Uganda, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He died at the papal summer villa
in Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 6, 1978. [Source: Catholic News
Service]

August 21, 2018 – As we reckon with the Grand Jury report on sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania and the failures of bishops to protect the children entrusted to their care, our hearts and prayers—first and foremost—are with the victim-survivors.

January 17, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Eugene F. Merz, SJ, who was called to eternal life on January 16, 2019, around 5:30 a.m. Gene died at Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was eighty-seven years old, a Jesuit for seventy years, and a priest for fifty-seven years.

January 16, 2019 — It was a homecoming fifty years in the making. In 2016, Fr. Casey Bukala, SJ, moved to the Colombiere Center near Detroit, where elder Jesuits live in community, receive the healthcare they need, and pray for the Church and the Society. It was not Fr. Bukala’s first time at Colombiere, however.

January 9, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. John “Jack” R. Crocker, SJ, who died on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 88 years old. May he rest in peace.